Chapter 16 — Desire And The Blue-Robed Boy (5)

By the time they came out, the great hole that had been bored into the ground had vanished without so much as a trace.
Where it had been, the space was ringed now by men in the uniform of the Spell Army, and the only ones holding the line opposite them were Baek Yeongho, looking perfectly intact again, and his subordinates.

Foreseeing that things would only grow troublesome if they emerged into the middle of all that, the Blue-Robed Boy Eulha had spirited the whole party off to another spot the instant the Other Realm collapsed.
And with Geum Moa’s stealth-sorcery hiding every one of them from sight, there would be no needless collisions to deal with.

“They’re all in such a state of panic. Would’ve been even more fun if I’d shoved that lot in too. Such a pity I couldn’t, on account of that barrier.”

The Blue-Robed Boy laughed his kheh-kheh laugh as he said it, and at the sight of him Shin Hweein shook his head.

“So it was never about choosing a master — you simply enjoy tormenting people from the start, is it?”
“Eh-heyy, my master, how can you say such a thing of me? If folk are to mature even a little, they must first attain some glimmer of insight — and so I was about to sacrifice this single body of mine for that very purpose!”

Shin Hweein snorted at Eulha puffing himself up, and turned to look behind him.
There, sagging on his feet, stood Father Lucas, and supporting him with an arm slung about his shoulders was Sister Barbara.

“Father, you look thoroughly worn out.”
“Ahahaha… yes. It has been a long while since he came out for so long a stretch.”
“Normally, even when that one bursts out, I weaken him down with the smoke of my vape — but this time, of all moments, I happened to be away from his side.”

Sister Barbara ground her teeth as she said it.
He was already a wretch she loathed for ruining the future of her beloved older brother; if on top of that he meant to leave aftereffects behind, then her hatred of Zer was no wonder at all.

For his own part, Shin Hweein found it a touch vexing that Zer had hidden himself away again the instant the matter was concluded.
There had been something he wanted to ask the man.
But he could hardly put the Father through another bout of strain just to satisfy his curiosity, so he resolved to leave it for another time.

“Speaking of which, Brother — that devil…?”
“You’re calling me a devil! And I, who left a name in the history of Aeshin as an auspicious ghost!”
“A devil all the same, then.”

Father Lucas stood looking upon a rosy-faced boy-of-beauty in jeans and a denim jacket, the sort of face that, once seen, would not easily be forgotten, and could still dismiss him with the single word devil.
From that alone, one could readily gauge just how unwavering the priest’s religious convictions were.

“A new shikigami I have taken in.”
“Aah — so it is the devil who… fashioned that space.”
“Just so.”
“What?!”

Only after the priest and Shin Hweein had finished their casual question-and-answer did Sister Barbara finally turn a wary eye on Eulha.
Shin Hweein found Eulha’s head conveniently positioned for a good ruffling, gave it a rough scrub-down with his hand, and so eased her suspicion away.

“He is no enemy — set your mind at ease. For every measure he has tricked us, he shall give back service, and then some.”
“H-hey, no loans of me! I’ll only listen to my master!”
“Your name is mine, and mine alone. Have no fear.”

Having more or less concluded the introduction of his new shikigami, Shin Hweein at last turned his eyes toward Baek Yeongho, who was off in the distance, still shouting in fine spirits.

“He’s saying he got nothing out of it! So you lot are going to search his person?! If any of you have eyes still in your head, you can tell what sort of space that was — eh?! It was all in vain, the whole thing — it was illusion, every bit of it!”
“Even so, this place falls under military jurisdic—.”
“No — was it not stated that this is the territory of the Lord!”
“Suwon! is under! the Baek House’s! purview!”

He was only raising his voice to growl at the Spell Army, and, thrown in for good measure, at the priests of the Military Ordinariate and the Suwon Diocese, and there was no sign whatsoever of any move to look for the vanished Gem-Mage.
Perhaps he had grasped that she was dead.
Or else he had truly cut her loose from his heart and now thought it of no matter what became of her.
Or perhaps the restoration of his arm loomed so large in his mind that he had already forgotten the other matters that had passed inside the ruin.

Feeling the hollowness of it, for some reason he could not quite name, Shin Hweein shook his head.

“A gem is forever unchanging in its brilliance — and yet a man, how easily he changes.”
“That, I suppose, would be precisely why he was trying to turn people into gems.”
“Speak not so cruelly. Is value to be found only in what glitters?”

The civilians had all been rescued.
Since not a soul had actually died from the beginning, the Cardinal’s purpose would have been fulfilled even had they never come here at all.
And yet Shin Hweein, by coming, had gained a powerful new shikigami and had even acquired a ruby to set in counterpoint against the aquamarine, so the expedition had in the end turned out to be nothing but gain.

’… No. It is not only that, perhaps.’

The touch of his mother’s hand, illusion though it was, he had felt unmistakably.
And the lingering attachment to the pando¹ that still remained inside his childhood heart.
How was he to deny his own heart, when it had been laid bare before him with so transparent a clarity that there was no room even to lie?
He had only to gather all of it carefully into his arms and step forward.
It was not, after all, something he could cast off, nor was it something he had to overcome.
A weakness, it seemed, could simply remain a weakness, just as it was.

‘Looked at thus… those things which, hidden away among the glittering ones, are not often seen for what they are — they too must surely have their value.’

Having reached the end of that thought, Shin Hweein reached out for no reason but to give Eulha’s head another ruffle.
The fellow wore the expression of one who had no idea what any of it meant, yet grinned all the same.
Behind him, though, Geum Moa was wearing the look of someone about to go mad with jealousy, so Hweein had to snatch his hand back in some haste.

“Moa-ya, I beg of you — only cease to be jealous of a fellow male. It puts my own mood out of joint.”
“Where in love is there any distinction of sex!”
“Truly, what a child of the new generation, who eats Western pastries with yakgwa (a traditional Korean honey pastry) stuffed inside them — even your way of thinking is awake to the wider world. But have no fear; I am partial only to yakgwa, plain and unadorned.”

Then he led the party back the way they had come, toward the place where the Specter Realm Gate lay.
What followed was the same as before.
They opened the gate, used the compass-sorcery to carve out a shortcut, and travelled swiftly to the basement of Myeongdong Cathedral.
The passage through the Specter Realm had grown far safer than in previous attempts, too; moving along the seams in the spiritual-power currents, they were able to travel without so much as bumping into any low spirits along the way.

“Sorcerer — we just moved even faster than last time, didn’t we?”

Once they had safely come out through the Specter Realm Gate in the cathedral basement, Sister Barbara checked the time and said it, blinking at the result.
Shin Hweein gave a shrug and answered.

“That is because man is a creature who advances.”
“If everyone advanced at your speed, the world wouldn’t have a recognizable shape left in it.”
“What a dependable partner she is, truly. Oh — come to think of it, Sister Barbara spoke to you first, Brother. I am glad — it seems that in my absence the two of you have grown closer.”
“What in the—! Lucas, you really want to get hit?”

Leaving the bickering siblings behind, they stepped out of the room, and almost at once a flow of spiritual power could be felt.
Most likely it was arranged so that whenever someone passed through this place, word went automatically to the one in charge.
They had not long to wait before Cardinal Mose Oh Unwon himself appeared.
For some reason Shin Hweein had been anticipating just this, and a wry smile broke from him.

“You must be a busy man.”
“I had taken on only such work as could all be handled from one spot. I had charged the two of you with so important a request that my heart could not settle.”

It was this side of the man that was frightening.
Clicking his tongue inwardly in admiration, Shin Hweein fell into step behind him.
But before that.

“Father Lucas, Sister Barbara. Set aside your lovers’ quarrel and come along.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
“Ahahaha — my apologies.”

The Sister fired a particularly stinging look at him out of her fit-of-screaming eyes, and from it, it seemed there might very well come a day, before long, when they would have to have a talk once more about the color of her hair.

“Splendidly done. You have handled it more thoroughly than I had hoped for.”
“The dispute between the Military Ordinariate and the Suwon Diocese has not been settled. Their mouths have been stopped for the moment, but the Baek House too may yet come to make a fuss at the cathedral.”
“All of that is petty matter. Pray do not concern yourself.”

The Cardinal cut the matter short and inclined his head toward Shin Hweein.

“From the heart, I thank you for your help. The truth of it is, our cathedral’s awakened have the weakness of being fragile outside their own specialties. I should be most grateful if Sorcerer Shin Hae would continue to lend us his aid from here on as well.”
“By all means — gladly.”
“Ah, no — that sort of reply ought to be given only after you have seen the reward. Father Lucas — does the Vatican issue a separate stipend, too?”
“Of course, Your Eminence.”

What was meant by “issuing a separate stipend” became plain when one notification after another of incoming deposits chimed on his phone.
The depositor’s account was kept in confidence, but at least the amounts could be plainly read: 500,000, and 500,000 again, stamped twice over.
Nor could it be a mere clerical error, for one was in dollars and the other in euros.
He still could not say exactly how much that came to in Korean won, but at least for the time being his activities would suffer no inconvenience.
And if he took on more work from the cathedral, the margin would only grow more comfortable.

“The won is highly stable, but the dollar is not far behind. It has been strong of late.”
“As long as it can be used in payment just as it is, I have no complaint.”
“There are next to no transfer fees either, so rest assured. I do hold an account on that side myself, but it is not the sort of account just anyone can hold.”

When Geum Moa, who had crept up behind him, was readily shown the deposit notices, she grew all the more delighted.

“It looks as if a little surplus will at last be coming in — perhaps we could now spare a bit more attention to the clothes the young master is to wear!”
“And how much, pray, do you mean to spend?”
“For now, to begin with — about half of the balance.”
“Endure with a tenth of it. And mark this well: a jinsa-gomo is out of the question. From this day forward, forever, out of the question.”
“Tch.”

A jinsa-gomo meant a tall hat made of pure silk thread, which is to say a silk top hat.
When Geum Moa, who had been quietly trying to satisfy her own appetites through his wardrobe, clicked her tongue and stepped back, the Cardinal said with a ha-ha laugh:

“Even a tenth of the amount just deposited would come to more than a hundred million won, so it ought to be quite sufficient for some fine clothes.”
“Even that strikes me as still a little short, in truth….”

That those present now more or less understood Shin Hweein to be of noble-house origin was a small mercy.
But if anyone were to say such a thing elsewhere, would it not, in the end, have to be Shin Hweein himself who delivered the punishment?

While Shin Hweein was inwardly gritting his teeth, the Cardinal suddenly cleared his throat.

“In truth, Sorcerer Shin Hae, there is another matter on which I should like to ask your view.”
“Another commission already? I do not mean to refuse, but I should be grateful for at least a little while in which to rest, first.”
“Ah — no. It is not a commission. It is that… someone has come to see you.”

The moment he heard those words, Shin Hweein’s expression hardened.
Any number of suppositions flickered through his head, but he found himself reluctant even to put any of them carelessly into words.

“Who?”
“It is a Miss Yun Juna, a Rank-Two multi-ability awakened. She did not give the name of her House — she gave only her personal name, and requested a meeting with Father Lucas. The two have, of course, never met before, so she is most likely….”

Shin Hweein’s brow knit.
It was not the worst case, but neither could he simply rejoice, for if Yun Juna had come to the cathedral, and had moreover singled out Father Lucas in particular, it meant Yun Jinseong had caught wind of his whereabouts.
Yun Juna did not know Father Lucas, but Yun Jinseong did.
If word of the clash earlier in Suwon between the priests, the army, and the Baek House had reached Yun Jinseong’s ears.
If he had managed to obtain even a description of a masked sorcerer leaning on a staff, then it was only natural he would have read Shin Hweein’s identity from it.

‘I had braced for it, but it stings nonetheless. To be caught out in scarcely a few days.’

Yun Jinseong was not, of course, the sort to come and seize him by force.
But he might come bearing requests just a little too burdensome to refuse.

“Sorcerer Shin Hae — shall we offer you our protection?”

Watching Shin Hweein hesitate, Cardinal Oh Unwon laced his fingers together, propped his chin upon them, and put the question in a serious voice.

“…No.”

In honesty, he had no particular wish to come face to face with Yun Juna, yet in the end Shin Hweein shook his head.
If he fled from Yun Jinseong, who was not even his enemy, then how would he ever face the true enemies that lay coiled in wait beyond him?
And he had, in any case, a prior engagement with Yun Juna.

“I shall meet her, just the once. Would you have her shown inside for me?”
“As you wish. Allow me to say it again — the cathedral stands ready, at any time and against any party, to offer Sorcerer Shin Hae its protection.”
“My thanks.”
“Let us go together.”
“I, too.”

When Shin Hweein rose to his feet, Father Lucas rose naturally to follow, and when Sister Barbara then made to fall in behind them as well, the eyes of all those in the room turned and fixed themselves upon her.

“Wh-what is it!”
“What do you think, Brother? This sort of thing about her — it is really quite endearing.”
“Do not throw your arms open proudly as though you were introducing a product.”
“Eek, ee-ee-eek…!”

In the end, Sister Barbara could bear it no longer and struck Father Lucas.
Shin Hweein decided to leave them to it and step out of the room first.

Yet the words Yun Juna spoke the moment she laid eyes on him were unexpected.

“I’m told they’re prepared to arrange a Rank-Two Sorcerer’s licence for you. The condition is a private test, in exchange — beyond that, my uncle says, there will be nothing else they ask of you.”

Even as he felt certain that the test, of all things, was exactly what Yun Jinseong was after.
It was a proposal at which he could not but nod his head.